Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Vampire?
by MeganRachel09
Summary: When Lily's parents go out of town, she decides to invite her friends over for a horror movie night. Only Sirius Black is brave enough to actually show up, but he may end up regretting his decision. Tumblr prompt.


Tumblr prompt: Lily showing the marauders scary muggle movies. The classics. (Bonus points if one or more are scared as heck)

 _Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Vampire?_

"You're all cowards, the lot of you." She was pouting, but she didn't really care. All she wanted was for her friends to come over to her house and watch some moderately terrifying Muggle films with her. Seeing as they were all in bloody Gryffindor, she had thought it wouldn't be much of a battle, yet here she was. Maybe she wasn't being completely fair to _all_ of them. Really, it was only Peter who had outright refused to come over because he didn't feel like being scared.

"You slept in the same room as a werewolf and lived in a haunted castle for seven years, Pete." James, who actually had a good reason for ditching her, said with a scoff, his arm slung casually over Lily's shoulders as the five of them lounged in the living room of the flat he and Sirius shared. "I don't see why you're afraid of a Muggle film."

Across the room, Peter sputtered, indignant and embarrassed, into his bottle of Firewhiskey.

"Did you actually just use me as an example of a present horror in his life?" Remus eyed James over the book he was leafing through, legs dangling over the arm of the chair he was sprawled in, one hand stroking through Sirius's hair where he sat on the floor in front of him.

"Have you ever had to deal with yourself on a full moon?" James asked.

Remus stared at James as if worried he had suddenly lost half his brain. "It's sort of the entire reason you lot got the insane idea to become illegal Animagi."

"Exactly. So you understand. You are, actually, a bit of a horror that time of the month." James only grinned when Remus mimed chucking his book at him. Lily suspected that if she hadn't been sitting practically in James's lap Remus would have actually thrown the book.

"Something you have in common, eh?" Sirius joked, waggling his eyebrows at her from across the room. When she turned to glower at him, he rolled his eyes. "Can no one take a damn joke today?"

"My parents are going out of town and no one wants to come keep me company while I watch stupid horror films." Lily frowned, feeling James's grip on her tighten, and turned to him. "I thought for sure that you, of all people, would leap at the chance."

"Lily, I want to come over, believe me." There was a heat in his gaze that told her that, yes, he definitely did want to come over and take advantage of her parents going on holiday without her. "It's just that I already promised Mum I'd go with her to her check-up at St. Mungo's. You know ever since Dad died she doesn't like going anywhere alone."

She kissed his cheek, a gentle brush of her lips against his flesh, and the disappointment softened into quiet adoration on her face. "I know."

"I just don't feel like watching _Dracula_ for the third time," Remus told her, moving on quickly, as he usually did, from being offended.

"Yeah, if you picked a different movie…" Peter allowed his suggestion to trail off hopefully.

"It's October, though!" Lily frowned, looking around the room. When she only got blank stares back, she rolled her eyes. _Bunch of bloody wizards._ "Halloween time! It's Muggle tradition to watch horror films when Halloween nears!"

"Not to worry, Evans. I'm not afraid of Muggle horrors. I'll be there," Sirius vowed. "I'm not a coward like the rest of them!"

—-

If Lily wasn't mistaken, Sirius seemed to be presently regretting agreeing to come keep her and her horror films company. If only he weren't so damn proud he might actually admit he was a bit afraid.

"There's someone in the house!" he exclaimed, eyes wide. The glow from the television in the otherwise dark living room lit up his face and would have made him look almost spooky if he weren't so ethereal. "I'm telling you, there's someone in the house!"

"Yeah, two someones." Lily rolled her eyes and pointed at him, then at herself. "You. And me."

"No, Evans! Someone other than the two of us!" he said. There was a quiet thud and he turned to face her, all triumph and poorly-disguised terror. "See? That wasn't me, and it wasn't you. Someone. is. in. the. house."

Lily laughed and shoved him away when he leaned in closer to her. "You're not trying to scare me into your arms, are you? And here I thought you would never betray James and Remus like that."

Sirius's face contorted at the suggestion and he surged away from her quickly, his eyebrows drawing together, eyes narrowing, nose wrinkling, mouth puckering. If she hadn't been joking, known just how unlikely it was for Sirius to ever even consider the idea of seeing her as anything other than his best friend's girl, she would be offended by the look of pure disgust on his face. Instead, it only made her laugh harder, seeing him crowded into the corner of the couch, not wanting to be too far away from her for the sudden unwelcome fear of the bump in the night but also not wanting to be too near her for fear of being misread.

"I'm only kidding, idiot." Since he was suddenly out of arm's reach, she aimed an affectionate kick at his thigh. "Look, if this is too scary for you, we can change it."

"No!" Sirius shouted, lunging forward to grab the remote control before she could. "I'm not afraid, okay? I'm in Gryffindor. I'm the only one of my useless mates who was brave enough to come watch these scary Muggle films."

"Remus has already seen them all," Lily reminded him. "And the only reason James isn't here is because he had to take his mum to her appointment."

"They didn't want to be scared," Sirius insisted. "Which I'm not, by the way."

Lily arched one prim brow. Sirius frowned and sighed.

"Look, the first one… that… bloody hack-em-up film… that didn't scare me, right? What's a bit of blood and gore? But this… this is freaky! I don't like it!" He crossed his arms and stared at the wall next to the television, hoping that maybe she wouldn't notice he wasn't actually watching the film. "But I'm _not_ scared."

"Why is _Dracula_ freaky?" Lily asked.

"Because I don't actually know any vampires personally and, for all I know, they could actually be like this!" he said, angling himself so that he was facing her and not the television. "Murderous, blood-crazed, hypnotizing monsters who take advantage of the people they don't kill!"

Lily laughed, rolled her eyes, and returned her attention to the television. Reluctantly, Sirius mirrored her position, only occasionally glancing at the film and trying to block out the dialogue. They were quiet for several minutes, Sirius doing his best to ignore the film and Lily actually seeming to enjoy it.

There was another quiet thud and Sirius turned to study Lily, who didn't look away from the television. He frowned and glanced around cautiously, gripping his wand tight in his pocket. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lily asked.

He studied her more closely, noticed the innocent look on her face, thought to himself, _wait, she doesn't usually look all that innocent even when she is innocent._ He frowned and pointed one finger at her. "Evans, I swear to Merlin, if you're messing with me, I'll…"

When he trailed off, she raised one eyebrow.

"You'll what?" she asked slowly. It was a clear challenge.

"Hex you," he said bravely, knowing that he could never manage it.

Lily laughed and shook her head. "You won't."

"Oh, and what makes you so sure?" he asked, even though she was right. Keeping her talking was distracting her from the fact that he was no longer pretending to be interested in the movie. The only problem was that he was fairly certain she knew what he was doing and that only made him more suspicious.

"Because I'll hex you right back, and Sirius?" She smiled sweetly, but her wand was suddenly in her hand, twirling loosely and impressively through her fingers. "You've never managed to beat me in a duel."

"There's a first for everything," he said, but didn't bother drawing his own wand. The fact that he almost certainly couldn't beat her was only one of the reasons he didn't try. The other was… well, she knew that one as well.

"Besides," she continued as if he hadn't even spoken. "James would kill you if you hexed me."

And there it was, the other predominant reason he would never attack her; James would _never_ forgive him. There was also the fact that he actually quite liked Lily –she was one of his best friends and he genuinely enjoyed her presence even when James wasn't around – and he didn't want to ever see her hurt.

"You'd kill him if he took it upon himself to avenge you." He spoke with the confidence of one who had witnessed several rows on the point.

It had long since been determined that Lily Evans could take care of herself and most certainly did not need James Potter to step in for her.

"And then you'd both be dead," Lily said airily. "And you don't want that, do you?"

Sirius pretended to think it over, but was really just dragging the moment out to extend this little reprieve from having to focus on the blood-thirsty _potentially realistic_ monster on the screen.

"Well, we could always not tell h—" he broke off with a garbled scream, fumbling to draw his wand from his pocket, when a tall, pale figure in drab garb appeared in the doorway. "I fucking told you?!"

Another figure, this one masked, appeared outside the window, making Sirius jump. His head swiveled to and fro, trying to watch both the figure creeping towards him from the doorway and the one watching from the window. When a third figure crept up behind him and grabbed Sirius's shoulders roughly, he shrieked, a dozen curses half-formed on his tongue, and Lily laughed.

Sirius froze, recognizing the familiar scent of chocolate and warm, soothing tea, and a different sort of cursing rent the air around him. With a flick of her wand, a cackling Lily turned the lights on to reveal the pale, creeping figure in the doorway to be James, and the one currently bruising Sirius's shoulders to be, as suspected, Remus. With a soft _crack_ , the masked figure outside the window appeared between Sirius and Lily on the couch; Sirius tore the mask from his face to glare at Peter.

The room was full of laughter and if he hadn't been so shaken from the unfamiliar terror that had just coursed through his body, he would have joined in.

"What the hell is wrong with you all?" he asked hoarsely, looking around the room. He had to crane his head back to look up at Remus, who had yet to relinquish his hold.

It seemed that Remus, who was laughing nearly as hard as Lily, was using Sirius's shoulders to remain upright. It was so rare to see that mirth on Remus's face that it almost made Sirius not care that his own boyfriend had plotted to frighten him. _Almost_.

"We got sick of all your posturing, mate," James said, struggling to contain his laughter as he fell practically on top of Lily on the couch. "About being a _true Gryffindor_."

" _I'm not afraid of a little Muggle film_ ," Peter said in what was, truly, a terrible impression of Sirius's voice. " _I'm not afraid of anything at all. I'm a Gryffindor."_

"I think he was a little afraid, wasn't he?" Remus managed.

"There's someone in the house!" Lily shrieked.

"You're all assholes. I wasn't scared." Sirius pouted, shoving to his feet and turning to face them all. "And you look ridiculous. Is that make-up, Prongs?"

"Stage make-up," James corrected him. "And Lily likes it, don't you, love?"

She shrieked with laughter and shoved him away when he tried to kiss her. "Get away from me! You look horrid!"

Remus straightened up from where he had stumbled into the couch when Sirius had abruptly stood up and moved to join him in the center of the room.

"You can admit you were scared," Remus said, pulling Sirius down on the loveseat and pressing a lingering kiss under his jaw. "We all love you here."

"Yeah, but we'll still judge you," Peter added, prompting a one-finger salute from Sirius, who was quickly growing distracted by Remus's wandering hands.

He lasted all of a minute before he forgot he was pouting and embarrassed, and leaned in to kiss Remus full on the mouth, his arms wrapping around the back of Remus's neck to pull him close.

"Let's get out of here," Remus said, panting when they parted.

"Best idea you've had all night," Sirius said, and then they were gone.

James and Peter were still snickering when Lily turned to them, a brick-shaped object in her hand. "Want to watch a film with me?" she offered with a bright smile.

"No horror!" Peter said loudly, on the verge on whining when she smiled wickedly.

"No, no, no. This is _Bambi_ ," Lily said gently. "It's a cartoon. About deer."

"I'm all for it!" James actually looked quite interested. When she patted his knee, he frowned. "Oh God, I'm going to hate it, aren't I?"

* * *

Yet another tumblr prompt. This one was a little rough for me because I don't watch horror films often and have never actually seen any of the classics, so I didn't really know exactly what to do with it. It was still fun to write, though! I hope you enjoyed it even though I don't think it's my best work :)  
PS Friendly reminder that I'm jilyyall on tumblr if you wanted to follow me / talk to me. I actually have a poll up on tumblr asking for opinions on a new temporary URL if you're interested in helping a girl out. :)


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